Shakira arrives in Madrid in a head-turning Dior
Shakira was stunned in a quirky Dior bustier as she stepped off a plane at Madrid airport four months after winning a €55 million tax refund from the Spanish government. When the Columbian superstar, who is 49 years of age, came out of the airport, there was such a big crowd that the only way they could demonstrate their love for her was the presence of Spanish dancers and musicians. The pinkish-blue corset without straps matched the low-rise skin-tight pants and showed in great proportions the frame of the Colombian singer. Her towering pink heels were what helped her to be so fabulous on the stage in Waka Waka, so sunglasses, if anything, only added more to her image. The superstar is celebrating her performance in Spain for the first time after eight years in a major fanfare. She will be performing at her 12-night European residency, Estadio Shakira concert, which will take place inside the Iberdrola Music space, Villaverde, Madrid, on September 18th. The Colombian singer will perform her Las Mujeres Ya… tour for more than 50,000 fans per night, and it will end on October 11th.
Shakira’s €55M Win and Dior Return to Madrid
Shakira’s statement was a response to the Spanish government after years of a difficult tax fraud dispute in which the singer won her case against the government that ordered her to return an astronomical amount of EUR 55 million. The case was connected with the 2011 tax return. Following this long-running legal dispute that started in 2023, the courts have given her an exemption from alleged fraudulent activities. Shakira will now benefit from €55 million being returned to her, and she already celebrated her success by sharing one of Rihanna’s popular lines and a set of pictures of herself on her social media accounts.
Shakira, through an Instagram live post, showed the public a piece of Bajan singer Rihanna’s ‘B***h Better Have My Money’ (from the latter’s 2015 album) that served as a kind of reference of the money she has coming, which was not so subtle at all. She also modeled a unique multi-print co-ord during the same posting. In 2023, Shakira admitted to committing six tax fraud crimes in Barcelona court and got a suspended three-year prison sentence as a part of which she paid fines of €7.3 million. On the first day of a scheduled trial, she admitted to her misconduct in the years 2012, 2013, and 2014 that were part of a plea bargaining agreement. She had been accusing the Spanish Treasury Department of ‘publicly burning her at the stake’ like a witch during the Inquisition in a later fiery statement that she had made from her Miami house. However, the singer is happy about the judgment in her favor of the Spanish revenue department regarding her tax return for the year 2011 that was settled in May.
She Turns Heads in Madrid in Dior After Tax Court Win
The Audiencia Nacional Court in Madrid confirmed that it had made a decision in favor of the singer because the authorities could not prove that she had actually been in Spain for 183 days or more. In fact, the number of days a person is present in a certain country can make that country eligible to request the person to pay the tax for the respective year. The court pointed out in a statement, ‘The administration has not proven the singer stayed in Spain for more than 183 days in 2011. ”On the contrary, the judges’ ruling shows that Shakira’s stay in Spain was only 163 days, and the administration consequently didn’t make out a case that the singer had her main economic interests in Spain or family ties within the country,” the ruling said. A part of the statement also commented that the fact that the Bahamas, where the singer was officially a tax resident in 2011, was a tax haven at that time was of ‘no relevance.’
The court remarked: ‘What the administration basically had to demonstrate was just that the taxpayer was indeed a tax resident in Spain.’ The singer, who recently relocated to Miami with her two sons after divorcing ex-Barcelona soccer star Gerard Piqué, once said, ‘After over 8 years of being subjected to terrible media campaigns, I’ve only now been vindicated by the Audiencia Nacional court. There was never any fraud, and the government had never managed to prove that the allegations were true because, indeed, it was not the case. Moreover, for almost 10 years, I have been perceived as guilty; all the events were leaked online, and the whole story was distorted and blown up by the media. The name that once made me a public figure and one of my family was weaponized to intimidate other taxpayers,’ she added.
Shakira Wins €55M Refund, Court Says She Wasn’t a Tax Resident in 2011
Jose Luis Prada, Shakira’s lawyer, went on to say, ‘The judicial decision is the outcome of an eight-year-long case, and my client has suffered emotionally beyond what could be accepted.’ In addition, the administrative practice behind this is too lax. Shakira has been able to withstand pressure and is financially capable of going through all legal processes until the decision is made. However, such a method really crushes many poor taxpayers who cannot defend their case due to lack of means. Hence, we have been greatly consoled and, at the same time, extremely proud that the courts have shown their strictness and independence. We are glad to see that, when administrative decisions become totally unreasonable, we have a legal system that really works and guarantees that the law will be in force.
Shakira was touring the world in 2011, and she performed at 120 concerts in 37 different countries, according to her representatives. Representatives, in their statement, confirmed today, ‘She was not living in Spain, does not have children, and never operated her business center there.” Despite this, the tax agency went after her, compelled her to pay the full amount of her earnings tax, and disregarded her expenses; as a result, she suffered tremendous losses. Moreover, she became the target of an unjust and groundless tax evasion prosecution, which totally broke her. Her former lawyer was well-known for saying she could have saved tens of millions had she fallen in love with ex-REAL MADRID star Sergio Ramos, instead of Gerard Pique, after she confessed to having participated in a tax evasion scheme covering the years 2012 to 2014.
Shakira’s Lawyer Slams Spanish Tax ‘Inequality’ After Pique Romance
Molins Pau stated that peculiarities of the tax rules in her native country had caused her long-term relationship with the retired Barcelona footballer to result in her dealing with a total of six tax fraud charges, instead of only three. He explained on his radio show that he had based his reasoning on the fact that people resident in Madrid do not pay wealth tax, in contrast to those living in Catalonia.
Molins pointed out that one thing that Shakira would do in order to protect her privacy is make herself a non-resident of Catalonia. The three taxes of 2012 and 2014 relating to the net assets of Catalan or Spanish residents that Shakira admitted having evaded as part of her plea agreement are, in essence, wealth tax evasions. The other three taxes are income tax evasions.
Referring to Pau Molins making comments about the Colombian singer’s romantic choice on a radio program in Catalonia, he said, “Shakira’s affair with him cost her €120 million. Had she chosen to fall in love with Sergio Ramos instead of Piqué, it would have cost her much less.”
“They say that all citizens of Spain are equal, but it seems that if you’re the citizen being charged, you get imprisoned only for some crimes in Catalonia and not at all for the same crimes of a citizen living in Madrid, since there is no wealth tax in Madrid.
She Visited 74 Countries in 2011, Lawyer Says Tax Case Was ‘Very Complicated’
Shakira asked Mr. Molins if he was there at the trial, and Mr. Molins was also willing. Then Mr. Molins said, “I think we could have won.” But on the contrary, the press mentioned him as saying that it became a plea bargain; Shakira took that step; therefore, he was forced to back up her decision. Besides this, Mr. Molins attempted to show why it was almost impossible to prove Shakira’s case by stating, ‘It’s very hard with international artists.’
Tax lawyer Mr. Molins said, ‘If they travel all the time, where do they live? When they are on tour around the world, Shakira, for example, goes to visit close to 80 different countries. Tax authorities don’t even know where to impose their taxes.’ On the other hand, in the UK, the tax period is not the calendar year of January to December, whereas in Spain it is exactly the calendar year of January to December.
Taxation on all kinds of income is payable to the authorities by Spanish tax residents.
Anyone who is present in a calendar year in Spain for more than 183 days is, for the purposes of taxation, regarded as a tax resident of Spain.
Shakira, or Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has been quoted recently as explaining her split with Gerard Piqué. However, it should be noted that before this, in August 2010, she did split from the former Argentinian president’s son, Antony de la Rua, after which she went on to get into a relationship with Gerard in 2011.
Spanish authorities had been of the view that at least €30 million was to be recovered from Shakira, which is roughly equivalent to approximately €30 million. According to the Tax Technicians Association of Spain (Gestha), that initial calculation of some €50 million to be repaid by Shakira had been erroneous, as that figure included the fine plus the interest on it if the case went in her favor that day, as a result of which the court would have decided upon that figure, which has since been cancelled.
After the Colombian accused the Spanish government of subjecting her to ‘brutal public accusations and orchestrated campaigns to destroy her reputation,’ the union replied that they would not accept the Colombian’s version as correct. ‘Spanish tax laws are among the most protective in the region,’ the union said. It also denied that Spain’s Tax Agency had been acting in bad faith.
